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Report n°5 : "Water : symbolism and culture"

Water and Eternal Life

For the Qur'an there is, of course, life on earth, but there is also the life beyond. Here, too, water is God's supreme reward to the believers and to those who have done good works during the brief passage on this earth that is life for any follower of the Prophet. Time and time again the Qur'an repeats expressions such as "paradises with rivers flowing below" or "living running waters" promised to good Muslims under "in the shade long-extended of the trees of paradise"; sura 2 The Cow (ayat 25) reveals this instruction to the Prophet: "Proclaim to those who believe and perform honourable deeds that they will have gardens through which rivers flow." Almost exactly the same words are to be found in verse 85 of sura 5 The Table Spread: "God will compensate them with gardens through which rivers flow to live in for ever because for what they have said."

For Hamidullah, a translator of the Qur'an, these graphic expressions seem designed to remind the Bedouin in the Arabian desert of the hillsides of Syria with their lush green orchards from which springs of water rose to form trickling streams: an idyllic setting, in essence, for those who lived in the arid wastes of Arabia. And, the translator adds, St. Luke's Gospel (Luke 20: 30) and the writings of St. Ephraim the Syrian (circa 365) also depict the indescribable pleasures of Paradise in earthly terms.

In Paradise, the fortunate drink "a cup of spring water" and "shall never want for (fresh water)." The Qur'anic text uses the Arabic term ma'ïn (see note 7) for "water running on the surface", a true delight, Hamidullah adds, for those who have known only the bitter water from deep wells in the desert, water that is often brackish or over-rich in iron or mineral salts. Furthermore, sura 37 Those Who Set the Ranks, (ayat 45 to 47) tells the fortunate that God will relieve them of "long journeys" to fetch this water from a distant waterhole under the burning desert sun. In Paradise, indeed, one spring goes by the name of Salsabil, a composite word made up of salas (easy walking) and sabil (60) (path), i.e. flowing pleasant water, and another by the name of Tasnim, which means spring of abundant water; one of the streams in Paradise is called Khawthar (nectar, in Arabic). In sura 20 Taha, ayat 119, God warns Adam against the wiles of Satan and assures him that in Paradise: "you will neither thirst there nor feel sunstruck".

It is to be noted that Paradise is watered by rivers and streams (61) and not by seas, because rivers are a symbol of life while the sea and the desert, according to Egyptian novelist Gamal Ghitany, "are infinite expanses and through this infinity take on a common significance and symbolism, in which land and sea are, for once, joined".

It is also to be noted that the Qur'an devotes sura 34 Saba to south-western Yemen. This region -Arabia Eudaimon or "Arabia the blessed", cited by Euripides' Dionysus as one of the many distant lands he has visited- greatly impressed the Bedouin with its lush green vegetation and its opulence, since irrigation was practised here long before the Christian era and not only were dykes built but also the famous Mareb "dam", which features in pre-Islamic Arabic literature.The flooding of the "dam" is mentioned in verse 16 of this sura: "They spurned (it), so We sent a torrent from the dam upon them, and We changed both their gardens for them into two gardens yielding bitter food, tamarisk and a very few hawthorns". The first destruction of the "dam" would seem to have taken place around 750 BC and a second destruction occurred just prior to the appearance of Islam. The dam remained in service for some 1,500 years and provided irrigation for close on ten thousand hectares, enough to feed 50,000 people -a considerable number for the period (62) - which would explain the interest shown by the Qur'an in this water project, unique of its kind, in the Arabian peninsula.

Nothing is more pleasing to God than to offer water to one's fellow man, even if he be an enemy, and the sharia -a term which originally (and how instructive the etymology!) meant "water law"- instituted "haq al shafa (shirb)" or "the right to quench one's thirst" for man and beast. The great merit attributed to the giving of water to any living creature is reflected in this hadith (63) transmitted by Al Bukhari (64): "A prostitute was forgiven by Allah because, passing by a panting dog near a well and seeing that the dog was about to die of thirst, she took off her shoe, and tying it with her head-cover she drew out some water for it.So Allah forgave her because of that".

The Qur'an also emphasises the ambivalence of water, which can also destroy -by means of torrential rains, hail or floods, for example- and thus serve to punish the wicked. Sura 6 The Cattle, ayat 70 announces to the Prophet: "Stay away from those who take their religion as a sport and amusement. Those who let themselves act recklessly concerning what they have earned must drink boiling water and suffer painful torment because of how they have disbelieved". Pagan Arabs of the time used boiling water as a form of torture. Similarly, sura 26 The Poets, ayat 173, recounts that God punished the wicked with catastrophic rains: "We sent a rain down upon them. How evil was such a rain or those who had been warned!" Muhammad's biographers relate that in 605 the Prophet, then aged 35, witnessed the destruction of the Kaaba by fire followed by torrential rain.

(60) While performing the Hajj in 808, Zubaida, wife of the Abassid Caliph Haroun Al-Rachid, was touched by the plight of pilgrims who had trouble finding water. She ordered the building, at her own expense, of a canal to bring the water of Aïn Hanin to Mecca.It is interesting to note that in certain Muslim countries (Kuwait, Morocco, etc.), sabil also means a source of water provided by a pious benefactor for the benefit of passers-by.In Kuwait, these water sources are even chilled and feature the name of the donor (often a woman, in fact). In Morocco, they are richly decorated with azulejos. Offering water to the passer-by is a gesture highly valued throughout the Islamic world.

(61) Water is often associated with the representation of paradise. The land of Eden, the Garden of Delights -where Adam and Eve dwelt- is the source of four rivers: Pishon and Gihon (long considered to be the Ganges and the Nile), the Tigris and the Euphrates. Amer, the Japanese paradise, lies above the earth and is watered by the peaceful river of the Milky Way. For the ancient Egyptians, paradise was the Field of Reeds, an idealised vision of the familiar landscapes of the banks of the Nile.

(62) Pierre Gentelle wrote on this heading: "Since ancient times, Mareb has been the object of unanimous admiration, by virtue of the dyke built across the wadi and which is therefore sometimes called a dam... The remains, still visible today, represent such an ingenious solution for capturing the water that would otherwise run off uselessly into the desert, that they have never ceased to fascinate those who know of them. It is no accident that such a work is mentioned in the Qur'an, even though the Qur'an dates from after the final destruction of the dam." (in "Traces d'eau. Un géographe chez les archéologues", Belin, Paris, 2003).

(63) Information handed down by many chains of transmitters of the deeds and words of the Prophet. For Muslims, the authority of the hadith is second only to that of the Qur'an.

(64) Muhammad al-Bukhari (810-870), considered the greatest of the hadith scholars and venerated as a saint.